Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

21-April-2012 19:55 IST

Text of the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Intervention Statement at FATF Ministerial Meeting in Washington D.C.

The text of the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Intervention Statement at Financial Action Task Force(FATF) Ministerial Meeting in Washington D.C. today is as follows:

India appreciates the efforts of FATF in issuing the new international standards to combat money-laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. These new standards would help better address new threats to the international financial system and provide stronger framework to act against criminals.

We are convinced that implementation of these new standards by the global community will make financial systems more transparent, safe and robust.

We fully share the view that due to integration of world economies and intermingling of the threats in the international business environment, no country can alone meet the threats of money-laundering and terrorist financing. There is an ever growing need for international cooperation to deal with these threats that are increasingly acquiring international dimensions. We hope the new standards will improve the domestic and international cooperation amongst the agencies to combat these crimes.

We have special concern that in cases of terrorist financing, stronger and faster international cooperation should be encouraged. It is also important that systems are put in place to prevent and detect the misuse of formal and informal channels irrespective of the size of fund.

The recommendations relating to transparency of legal entities and legal arrangements would help in promoting international cooperation in determining the controllers and beneficial owners of legal structures.

I am confident that FATF, while framing the assessment methodology, will take into account the diversities in the financial and legal structures of various countries and the implementation challenges that countries with lower capacities would have to face. India will fully contribute with member countries in developing suitable assessment methodology and procedures.

India is committed to implement these recommendations in an effective manner and contribute towards the global efforts to ensure integrity of the financial system

With these few words I reiterate India’s support to FATF process and to the extended mandate being sought up to 2020.

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DSM

International AML/CFT standards strengthen cross border cooperation to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The statement calls for adoption and effective implementation of new FATF standards to enhance transparency and resilience against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing; it stresses stronger, faster cross border cooperation, prevention and detection of misuse of formal and informal financial channels, measures to identify controllers and beneficial owners, and assessment methodologies sensitive to diverse financial and legal structures and capacity constraints.